The Last Seduction

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

You might remember a few posts back when I mentioned that I expected The Taking of Pelham One Two Three to be a gritty crime drama, and it turned out to be more of a fun, comedic cops and robbers type of flick. Well, I need to start doing my research better, because something similar happened with The Last Seduction.

I had heard this movie mentioned as a neo-noir with frank sexuality and a great Linda Fiorentino performance. For whatever reason, in my mind this movie was going to be some darker, heavier drama, maybe even a little bit tragic. I end up being pretty thrown off during the first few minutes when it turns out to be a quick-witted, quirky dark-comedy that's even a little goofy at times.

This movie have a number of classic noir-ish elements, but the cool twist is that this time the femme fatale is the lead character. It's a great character too; maybe the most heartless bitch in film history. Manipulative, greedy, vengeful and oh-so acid tongued. Linda Fiorentino is a lot of fun too watch.

I enjoyed this one, but not as much as I had hoped. One reason is the inconsistency in tone. A lot of the movie plays as very dark but relatively restrained comedy. But then, Bill Pullman keeps showing up in a really bizarre, really over-the-top performance. He does a good job, but it feels like it's from another movie. And then other really broad moments start popping up, and it's like the movie can't decide which style is more fun.

I would also say the movie is maybe a little too long or slow in parts, and it drains on the fun a bit. There is a lot of snappy dialogue, but sometimes the movie drags on too long without much seeming to happen. In retrospect, I can see that some of these scenes are important plot points (in true noir fashion, the plot is absurdly dense), but they can have done more to keep the energy up and make these scenes fun.

I've yet to see a movie by director John Dahl that I didn't at least somewhat enjoy, with Joy Ride being a personal favorite of mine. The Last Seduction, however, doesn't build up nearly as much suspense or interest as that film does. This one is a lot more like his Red Rock West, with a little Double Indemnity or Body Heat thrown in. Fun, but I wanted to like it more than I did.



UPDATE 12/6/07
I forgot to mention this in my original thoughts, but I always thought Dahl had a cool visual style in his other films. However, I couldn't really appreciate it as much here, because Netflix only had a full screen version. Arg!